The Kirkus Prize is one of the richest literary awards in the world, with a prize of $50,000 bestowed annually to authors of fiction, nonfiction and young readers’ literature. It was created to celebrate the 81 years of discerning, thoughtful criticism Kirkus Reviews has contributed to both the publishing industry and readers at large. Books that earned the Kirkus Star with publication dates between November 1, 2014, and October 31, 2015, are automatically nominated for the 2015 Kirkus Prize, and the winners will be selected on October 23, 2015, by an esteemed panel composed of nationally respected writers and highly regarded booksellers, librarians and Kirkus critics.

"Hayes, best known for his Mad Dog & Englishman series (English Lessons, 2011, etc.), draws on his expertise in archaeology and anthropology in this stand-alone. The mystery is slight, but the portrait of tribal life and the lyrical descriptions of an untouched land are worth the read."

"The final secret, even zanier than anything that's gone before, makes you wonder if Oz is really so far from Kansas after all."

Now that Tommie Irons has finally succumbed to cancer, part-Cheyenne shaman Mad Dog, né Harvey Edward Maddox, has one last service to render his part-Choctaw friend: sneaking into Sunshine Towers and, with the staff's full cooperation, sneaking out with Tommie's body so that he can give it proper Native American internment high atop a tree.
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"Hayes (The Grey Pilgrim, 1990), a gold-medal melodramatist, overloads his tale with crises, a conveniently stranded professor who explains Tsistsistas shamanism, and a sentimental wrap-up compounded of the purest mush."

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